ERC Starting Grant for Maria Antonietta Loi
FOM workgroup
leader Prof.dr. Maria Antonietta Loi has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant. ERC grants are intended for setting up
or further strengthening excellent research teams.
Solar cells
Loi will use the grant of 1.5 millioneuros for research into semiconducting nanocrystals in solar cells. Thesecrystals can improve the efficiency of solar cells because their electronicproperties can be managed. Layers of nanocrystals have poor conductingproperties (the nanocrystals are quantum confined). The aim of theproject is to link the nanocrystals using organic molecules in order to removethe limitation in conduction. With this approach Loi hopes to develop newsemiconductor materials with which sunlight can be converted more efficientlyinto electricity.
Dr. Meike Stöhr has also acquired anERC Starting Grant for physics research. She is an assistant professor in thesolid-state physics group of FOM workgroup leader Prof.dr. Petra Rudolf.
Surfaces
Stöhr will use the grant of 1.5 millioneuros to investigate if the electronic surface characteristics of a materialcan be artificially changed. Stöhr has proposed a method to test this for metalsurfaces and for graphene. Furthermore, she will study the mechanismsunderlying these changes. The findings are important for the development of newmaterials, for example for electronic and nanoelectronic equipment or sensors.